The desire to excavate Asian theories of communication: one strand of the history

Abstract

The last 20 years have seen a great upsurge of interest in investigations into Asian theories of communication. A number of influential scholars have chosen to focus their attention on this field of inquiry. In this article, I seek to explicate my early involvements in the project of excavating Asian theories of communication. My primary focus is on classical Indian concepts of communication and their relevance to us as we aim to widen the discursive boundaries of communication. As I explore some of the classical Indian concepts, I try to point out the ways in which they display affinities to, and differences from, modern Western understandings of human communication.

Keywords:

• communication
• tradition
• epistemology
• linguistics
• metaphysics
• aesthetics